1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handle mounted on a package, as well as the tool adapted for its mounting.
It relates to the industrial and commercial manufacture and distribution of accessories for packages.
2. Discussion of Background Information
It is common to equip packages made of cardboard or the like with molded or injected plastic handles.
These handles generally have a body or central portion shaped like a strap, provided at each end with a gripping tab that confers to each end of this handle a “T” or “V” shaped profile, and adapted to be engaged, from the outside, into a slit provided for this purpose in the wall of the package, each tab being folded or tilted against the body of the handle prior to its engagement in the slit for which it is adapted.
In order to allow the user to grip the handle and to slip his hand between the handle and the wall of the package, the distance separating the slits provided in the wall of the package for passing and securing the gripping tabs is less than the length of the body of the handle that, as a result, must be partially bent before engaging the tabs in the slits. It is noted that this maneuver is difficult to achieve automatically.
There have been attempts at automating the positioning of individually manufactured handles, whose cost of production is very low, but the machines designed for this end are complex, expensive, slow and not very reliable.
The Patent No. FR 2 619 551 filed by the Applicant of the present invention describes a handle of the aforementioned type adapted to be automatically mounted, the body of the handle being bent during manufacture such that its ends are separated one from the other by a distance equal to the distance separating the slits provided in the wall of the package for which it is adapted. The gripping tabs are flat, and the handle is obtained in a way that each of these tabs forms a sharp angle with the corresponding end of the body, so as to be parallel to the gripping tab located at the other end.
In order to facilitate the automatic mounting of the handles, the latter are manufactured in strips, each of which are constituted of a plurality of handles assembled side by side by bridges made of easily cut material. This arrangement has the advantage of substantially facilitating the feeding of the mounting machines.
Nevertheless, these handles have a certain number of drawbacks:                the shaping mold is expensive and allows for only slow production rates, thereby generating a high production cost with respect to individual handles;        the shape of the handle limits the winding possibilities and the number of handles per roll is often found to be insufficient (separate machines);        the mid-point distance between the axes of the positioning holes on the package is related to the shape of the handle, which imposes minimum dimensions for the package that is to receive the handle; and        the pushing devices or positioning fingers are limited to simply pushing the handle, without ensuring at all that it holds, which can lead to some positioning issues.        